Ok, ok, for those of you who know my work, you know that as a Psychologist, I successfully help people break free from dieting and body image struggles. So why am I hiring someone to “diet” me?

In a previous blog post called “Can I Still Be on a Diet AND A Journey of Self-Love?“, I speak about a trend I’ve been noticing with my clients and in social media regarding body positivity, which is that when people are in process of learning to love themselves, they tend to go through a “rebellion” stage from the “dieting mentality”. I call this the Pendulum Effect, where dieting mentality is based one fear of fat and self-loathing. Then as people are breaking away from dieting mentality, they swing to the other side of the pendulum, which I coined “Rebellion Mentality” in which they tend to indulge in foods that they were not allowed while in Dieting Mentality, however they are in process of self-love so it’s coming from a place of learning to love yourself and breaking food rules. This is a very necessary, healthy and normal part of learning to love yourself – to break all these food rules that ran their life for years.

I am inspired by people and I love inspiring people. So although I do not believe I need to transform my body as I love it unconditionally, I believe I have the RIGHT to transform my body.

As a project to demonstrate and inspire others, I want show people how to transform their body (whether that’s fat loss, muscle gain, body composition change) with relationship with food in the background and self-love in the foreground.In dieting mentality, it’s all about being obsessed with food and fear of gaining weight. The missing ingredient is Self-Love.

I have hired Nadine Dumas, who is a health, fitness & nutritional coach, as well as an international fitness model and long time friend to “diet” me, because she shares similar values and approach as me when it comes to relationship with food and body. She is all about inside health (balanced hormones, mood, energy, etc.) and has a very balanced approach to food.She has a strong work ethic, has a big heart and is very inspirational in all that she’s accomplished. She is an awesome coach to work with!

Here I am with Nadine, shortly after Logan, my 2nd son was born.

BLASTING THE DIET INDUSTRY WITH A MASSIVE DOSE OF “SELF-LOVE”

Now I should clarify, I am not using “Diet” in the same traditional sense that most people know it to be (i.e., rigid, restrictive and from a place of fear of fat, self-loathing and body shame/hate), rather I’m actually seeing this as a “Nutritional Plan” that will help me meet some body transformation goals. I am of healthy weight and body composition, however, I’d like to challenge my body more with new fitness and health goals (i.e., gain overall strength and power and yes, physically that means I will change my body composition so that I have more lean muscle mass). I want to learn more about my body along the way as I think our bodies are so amazing and fascinating!

I will be counting on Nadine’s expertise in the nutritional, hormonal, physical and physiological areas, while I will use my own expertise in positive psychology, nutritional psychology and neuroscience to help me transform my body with a massive dose of Self-Love.

BUT IF I WANT TO CHANGE MY BODY, DOESN’T THAT MEAN I DON’T REALLY LOVE MYSELF?!

In my practice, I have noticed a huge trend with my clients in that once they break free from “Diet Mentality” and learn to have a better, more peaceful relationship with food, they still feel uncomfortable with their body- more so physically than emotionally (because they are in process of learning to respect and love their body). So many of my clients DO literally have weight/fat to lose for health reasons – they may feel physically uncomfortable and notice their weight gets in the way of their daily functioning. They may want to improve their cardiovascular health, hormone health, gut health, etc.

The single most important thing is that IT MATTERS ON WHAT PART OF YOU IS MAKING A DECISION TO TRANSFORM YOUR BODY. Is it coming from a fear-based place or a unconditional self-love place? When you come from an unconditional self-love place, it makes this journey much more pleasurable, peaceful, joyful and fun! It helps you increase your self-esteem, self-image, and confidence. It helps you really learn how to embrace your wholeness as a human being, and see this as an act of self-love rather than self-loathing.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN FROM FOLLOWING MY “BODY TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY”?

I will be personally write diary entries in the form of blog posts to demonstrate how to love yourself WHILE also making body transformational changes. I’m a wife, a mom of 2 young boys, and I run my own business as a therapist, mentor, wellness consultant, writer and blogger- so finding work/life balance is very important. I will give tips on how to keep a positive state of mind, how to feel joy and happiness and of course, freedom when it comes to food.

Essentially, it’s all about putting your relationship with food in the background and living a purposeful, happy and meaningful life in the foreground. When it comes to traditional diets, they make us feel crazy food obsessed – we’re always thinking about food and life seems to revolve around food so much so that we’re turning down social events, we’re anxious or out of control if we do eat out at social gatherings or we’re fearing food then binging on those foods because we’re made to believe we have no will-power. Then we feel mad at ourselves, guilt and shame and commit ourselves to self-punishment by beating ourselves up mentally and emotionally, or overexercising, or purging. It’s time to stop the madness!!!

You can read more about our “Self-Love & Body Transformation” Journey on Nadine Dumas’ site where she interviews me here.

Rosalyn Fung is a Registered Psychologist & Founder of Holistic Body Love. She is a wellness speaker, consultant, mentor, writer & blogger. Roz specializes in Holistic Nutritional Psychology in which she empowers people in their relationship with food, body image, weight, as well as digestion, fatigue, immunity and mood.

Her approach is a combination of eating psychology, positive psychology, mindfulness, neuroscience, family systems and nutritional therapy. She’s the go-to person to help you understand how to feel normal around food, and break-free from body image and weight struggles.